Time to start runnin'

I'm at the age where people around me begin to pop out babies. There seems to be a flood of new people in the world, and by flood, I mean 4. Of the 4, only one was planned. Which is why I wear a condom 24/7. I mean, I don't want to accidentally impregnate something on my way to the post office. Jesus, people! Don't you realize that when semen enters the vagina, there's a chance it will come into contact with an egg and begin the reproductive process? You don't need to pass the AP Bio test to understand this. It's just simple miosis. It's a strange thing, but one of my greatest fears at this stage of my life is an unplanned pregnancy, not that I don't want kids. Just not now. At the same time, I have little to no sympathy for people who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy. It seems remarkably avoidable to prevent a microscopic, one-tailed single-celled organism that dies quickly when exposed from swimming what to it must be the length of the Gulf of Mexico to find something the size of a pin-head.

But I digress...

By hangin' with the young-uns, I've been able to watch as they turn from helpless, yelling blobs into gangly, moving mechanisms. First they lie. Then they crawl. Then they stand. Then they... run? Yep, there aparently isn't a "walking" phase until later. As soon as they learn to stand, they start running. It kind of breaks the "baby-steps" saying, doesn't it? When I saw one of them thumping around at their 10 month period, it was obvious why he was running instead of walking. It was the only way to stay up! He was so unstable that the only way to keep his massive head from tipping him over was to keep his legs under him as quickly as possible. And his mom sat back and watch. "Thump-thump-thump-thump... WHUMP." Down he would go. Mom laughed and he laughed. Had Mom gasped, he would have cried. Funny how that works. He crawled up and started thumping away again.

And now to my point...

The time is right for me to start running. My baby-step days of screenwriting are over. I have hoisted myself on my legs and I need to blast into forward momentum before I topple over again.

I don't know if I classify this as a New Years Resolution. A resolution seems like something that you want to change. I'm perfectly satisfied with my handling of my career up until now. I have been taking it slow. I have been gently learning to crawl and then stand. In order to run, I first needed to have 2 healthy, strong legs underneath me.

And that was what always held me back. I had one script to my name for years. And when I added another, it was in a different genre (essentially, instead of adding a second leg, I brought in an arm). Then a script in a third genre (I don't even know what body part I'm on now). But now, I have two solid horror scripts on which to walk. I have a raunchy comedy that, although a different genre than horror, has a similar audience to horror. I've learned how to market myself, somewhat.

So I have my legs. You can't run with only one leg and you can't start in this industry with only one script. I've grown as a writer which has added some meat to those bones. I've made some contacts, gotten a few resume padders, and increased my portfolio.

If I try to walk now, I'll topple over. I'm new, young, inexperienced, and unconnected. Therefore, I am unstable in my writing career. The only way to keep my balance is to go full-speed ahead. Let's see how this plays out...